Beşiktaş’ Swedish back Milosevic not stranger to Istanbul tear gas

Beşiktaş’ Swedish back Milosevic not stranger to Istanbul tear gas

İsmail Er ANTALYA

AA Photo

Serbian-origin Swedish center back Alexander Milosevic, the new arrival of Turkey’s Beşiktaş football club, has said this was not his first time in the country, as he tasted the police tear gas in the summer of 2013 during a U-21 national game at Istanbul’s Kasımpaşa stadium near the core of the Gezi Park protests.

“We were in Istanbul as the Sweden U-21 team and the game at Kasımpaşa coincided with the Gezi events,” he told Hürriyet on the sidelines as Beşiktaş prepares for the second half of its league campaign in the coastal city of Antalya.

“The game was suspended for two hours due to the tear gas that reached the pitch,” he said. The 22-year-old had played only five games with the Serbian U-17 team before he joined Sweden, where he was born.

He was transferred to the Istanbul side after four years with Sweden’s Allmänna Idrottsklubben.

Milosevic said he was a striker with the Serbian national team but changed his position after advice from the Serbian coaches.

“They asked me whether I wanted to be a striker in the Swedish league or become an international player,” he said, adding he had a lot to learn from Beşiktaş’ Croatian coach Slaven Bilic.

Unsurprisingly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic remains an idol for Milosevic, and he also praised Barcelona’s Gerard Piquet.

He is not the sole new-comer to Beşiktaş’ defense, as Bilic is seeking ways to cut down on the high number of goals conceded in the first half of the club’s campaign.

Ghana international and Porto right back Daniel Opare arrived in Istanbul on the afternoon of Jan. 20 to join Beşiktaş’ Antalya camp.

The club said in a filing to the stock exchange that talks with the Portuguese club on a loan deal for the 24-year-old have begun.

Beşiktaş, one point behind Fenerbahçe at the top of the standings, will begin its second-half campaign with an away game against Gençlerbirliği on Jan. 26.